Absorption of Acetone in Air Using Water

Gas absorption is a very ubiquitous unit operation in any chemical plant. It has in common with liquid-liquid extraction that there are two carrier streams and one solute to be partitioned between them. Here, the McCabe and Thiele graphical method is used to study the separation of acetone from air, using water to absorb acetone from air. You can use the sliders to select the initial amount of acetone in air and the percent recovery of acetone (i.e. how much acetone will be extracted from air using water). The minimum ratio is determined and the operating line's slope is selected to be a ratio . Stages are alternately stepped off using the equilibrium curve (red curve) and the operating line (blue line) until the recovery specification is reached. The number of equilibrium stages is displayed.